Antal Szemere

(20 July 1923 - 17 September 1999, Hungary)

20.000 Leagues under the Sea (slide)

Born in Budapest, Antal Szemere worked at the Ministry of Heavy Industries as chief illustrator until 1956. The self-taught artist's first graphic works appeared on the pages and covers of Tábortüz, a magazine launched in 1957 that was the Hungarian equivalent of the French Caméra.

20.000 Leagues under the Sea

Soon thereafter, he published his most notable works, like the comic book adaptation of Jules Verne's '20.000 leagues under the sea'. The drawings brought back the atmosphere of the original French woodcuts.

Szemere created comics between 1956 and 1961. During this period he also produced his classic slides, most of which were based on Verne novels ('Captain Nemo', 'Robur the Conqueror'). He was greatly influenced by the works of Imre Sebök and the comics published in the French magazine Vaillant.

Captain Nemo

This is evident in two of his fantastic comics, 'Apéolón' and 'A végtelen vándorai' ('The errants of infinity'). He worked together with the doyen of Hungarian comic book art, Ernö Zórád at Ifjúsági Lapkiadó. They also illustrated quite a few slides together.

The errants of infinity

In the 1960s Szemere was employed as illustrator by Duclos, (a company that manufactured mining equipment. Later he produced drawings for Kiállításszervezo és Kivitelezo Vállalat (Exhibition Organizing - and Executing Company). He died in Budapest on 17 September 1999.